Call to present experiences and good practices from civil society in support of the response to tuberculosis in the Americas

Context

In September 2023, the second UN high-level meeting on tuberculosis was held. More than 600 high-level representatives from member states, UN agencies, NGOs, civil society organizations, academic institutions and the private sector participated. The 2018-2022 progress report was reviewed, and commitments contained in the political declaration(1) and adopted on October 5, 2023, under UN resolution A/78/L.4 were made.

These commitments included goals on treatment coverage, preventive treatment, coverage of rapid diagnostic tests, coverage of health and social benefits, financing of essential services, and investment in research and development, including new vaccines.
Accelerating progress in meeting commitments requires political leadership, multi-sector response and the implementation of the multi-sector accountability framework.

A key commitment raised the need to strengthen the participation of civil society and affected communities in the national response to TB.

Likewise, in 2023 the WHO published the “Guidance on community and civil society participation to end tuberculosis”(2), which was prepared within the framework of the WHO Civil Society Working Group on TB with the objective of promoting community participation in planning, decision-making, and promoting financing for communities' contribution to the monitoring and implementation of the tuberculosis response.

In this framework, PAHO makes this call to communities and civil society to learn about experiences and good practices in the region in support and/or provision of services within the framework of the response to tuberculosis.

Announcement

Summaries of experiences and good practices in the response to tuberculosis by community organizations and/or civil society in the Americas are invited to submit.

The aim is to identify and publicize the participation of civil society and communities in the different aspects of the response to tuberculosis, for example:

Community participation in advocacy processes. including community participation in advocacy campaigns for access to medicines, national budget allocations and approval of community care standards.
Community participation in governance, planning and monitoring of the response.
Community participation in health promotion and prevention and risk communication about tuberculosis.
Participation of communities in support services for vulnerable and key populations in prevention, diagnosis, and treatment, including actions to improve the outcome of tuberculosis treatment.
Community participation in the provision of tuberculosis care and treatment services.

Presentation of abstracts

Abstracts will contain a maximum of 1,100 words. The summaries, in Spanish or English, will be presented in the forms determined for this purpose on the PAHO website.

For the preparation of summaries, the following structure is required:

Context and justification, with a description of the problem that is addressed with the intervention presented as a successful experience. (maximum 200 words)
Description of the intervention, with the actions developed in the experience. (maximum 500 words)
Results, the most important results, or the improvement that resulted from the intervention. (maximum 300 words)
Lessons learned, share a key message of no more than two challenges that were overcome to carry out the intervention (maximum 100 words)
Photos: Attach photographs illustrating the experience presented.
Image Authorization: Attach form completed by the persons appearing in the photos.

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Request

Submission deadline: June 17, 2024
Completed forms of interventions carried out by institutions, organizations, groups, communities, affected people, faith-based organizations, and others will be accepted.
Authors can present more than one experience in different areas; if applicable, please send a summary of each of the experiences to be presented

Selection

The proposals received will be reviewed by an evaluation committee, which will assess their impact and relevance for the Region.
The best experiences will be selected to be presented as examples in a technical document civil society participation to be published by PAHO as a guide for promoting participation in the Region. The authors of the experiences included in the PAHO publication will be recognized.
Experiences will be selected to participate in a virtual event to launch the technical document.

The most relevant experiences may be documented audio-visually for wider dissemination.

(1) https://www.un.org/es/ga/78/resolutions.shtml . Accessed February 27, 2024. A/78/L.4 (undocs.org)
(2) https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240080294. Accessed February 27, 2024